Once Darkness falls
by Katt-itonic
Summary: A story following a war between humans. Other creatures have been drawn into the battle and now they lay in ruin. One being inpeticular has been wiped out because of the war, but they are not extict. A young Swicken girl and a group of children like her survived and found refuge in a small village.


A muddy orange colored robe with a hood hid his identity but I knew who he was. He kept my perch atop a roof above him as he got off his horse and adjusted his hood as a young boy took the reins of the horse. He spoke something to the boy and dropped some coins into the boy's hand. The boy led his horse away and the man looked around to see if he was followed. I felt like chucking, they never look up. I watched him move through the busy market street at the centre of the village. I moved carefully over the roof taking hold of the edge of the roof and swinging my body down. My feet touched the ledge of a window beneath me and I swung myself inside. A woman was standing there and gasped. I touched my face to make sure my mask was still on and it was. I dug into my pocket and tossed the ragged woman a coin and rushed out of the room down her main steps to the front door. I wasted no time rushing out the door and melding into the crowd. I was novice, sure, but I was good at my job.

The crowd was louder than usual as the kings men were passing through having just been paid. Every market stall was jumping at a chance to sell anything to a man in the king's cloths. I caught sight of my target heading towards the church. I moved to the back of the church after sighting him heading inside. I climbed the side of the church where the old bricks stuck out in a makeshift ladder. I climbed inside an open window and found myself in the organ room. Great metal tubes stood in the room. I walked towards the door but something caught my foot. I turned putting my hand on my dagger.

"Please child, spill no blood in the house of god, stain not your young hands child, is it worth it?" An old voice asked. It was an elderly man dirty with soot from cleaning the organ. He had caught me off guard but I had no intention of paining anyone with my targets death but my target himself.

"Rest easy Sir, this dagger shall not draw blood within the walls of this church, nor any other, my hands are none of your matter" I said pulling free and making my way to the main hall. Standing in the shadows I saw my target. He was kneeling before the stature of Christ praying. I moved up behind him unheard, holding my breath. Letting it out silently I drew my dagger to keep the man where I wanted him, had he any intentions of attacking or fleeing. I waited for him to finish his prayer, out or respect.

"You have come to take my life?" He asked. He voice was heavy as he lifted his head slightly. I could not see his face even when he stood. He was much taller than I, though it was expected he would be tall I had not expected to stay so close to him. He looked down at me and I could see his chin.

"I have" I said simply.

"May I ask of one last request before you try and kill me?" He asked. I grinned under my hood.

"Yes, you may ask for last request be I _do_ kill you" I said correcting him.

"Who is it that sent you here after me?"

"I cannot answer that, for I myself do not know whom they are"

"Then answer me this, why? You're only a child, why would you stain your innocent hands with blood for someone you don't even know?"

I smiled under my hood and flipped it off. His gasp only widened my smile. My long ginger hair flowed into curls down into my robe. My curved face was beautiful as my father told me, but his fear came not from my features as a woman but from my pointed ears. Beyond that of the usual person, my skin was a creamy dark grey. A black vine tattoo winded its way up my neck and ended under my left eye.

"You...you're...but" He attempted to speak but could not voice his thoughts. I nudged my dagger forward pulling my hood back up. He was still stunned but managed to lead him more willingly out behind the church where he fell to his knees suddenly. His breathing had gotten raspy, as if he were holding in tears.

"Please" He said with no question, simply a word. I poked my blade into his shoulder nudging him to get up and continue. He did get up and continue walking. The reason for his fear, I must explain, is I was a different breed of humanoid. Most would say elf or dark elf nut neither would be correct. I was part of an ancient race born with talents in stealth and swift attacks. We were a peaceful race though, until the war addicted human leaders saw potential in our kind. Before long our own leaders saw the hate poisoning our race but it was too late. Human's were finished with us and found our race had become a danger to them. Our peaceful villages were whipped out in a frenzy of savage mass murders by kingdoms. But we knew not all humans were so hateful and merciless. To tell the truth I think quite kindly of humans, I myself was saved and have been many times by humans who knew my breed but nothing of my background and still helped me. As a child when my village was torched and my mother was caught in the blood bath around me it was humans that took a band of survivors and I into their homes knowing the punishment for hiding us. Our name long forgotten we were simply remembered as Swick.

I knew my employer and knew him well; alone a Swicken assassin always has the chance, however small, of failure. I would never admit to knowing my employer though I did think of him as a father. He was a head of a small village, the one that saved my life and hid me through the years, and was trying to stop killing of anyone or thing that he could. I enlisted to help him when I was old enough to bring back pride to my family's name. Soon after enlisting I learned I had no care in pride, revenge drove me. The men and women I was sent out to kill were of high rank and evaded the laws. They were killers themselves in one way or another, I always asked them to tell me their sins before I freed the world of their poison. At times this saved me from making any mistakes, such as killing the wrong man or for the wrong reason. At others it made it easier to take their life. Now you must be wondering why a man clearly larger than I and older would go so willingly with me, leaving the church he knew he would be safe in? A Swicken always has threat on their side without uttering a word. This man must have had family, someone he cared for greatly and wished they be left alone.

I got him to the outskirts of town by a smoothly flowing river by a small apple orchard. There I took off my hood and found a large rock to sit on. The man watched me silently.

"Sit" I told him and he sat cross legged, his hood still covering his face, on the dirt.

"Confess your sins, and do not lie" I said running my thumb across my blade looking at it with one eye closed. I held it up checking how straight it was.

"My sins?" He asked.

"Who have wronged?" I asked in return. The man slipped off his hood and I looked over at him. He was bald and clean shaven. He had blue eyes and bushy eye brows. He face was pale and clammy with sweat.

"Thank god the day has come" He said in a trembling voice matching my eyes. "I took the children of my enemies; they'll never know they're true parents. I have carried my guilt for years"

I jumped up and growled "You never tried to right your wrong? Try and match them back with their parents?"

He flinched but spoke clearly "They died" He lifted his hands palms up towards me "They lost their lives fighting against my soldiers"

I stood over him, in my rage I had let my blade slice through his neck like it where butter. I watched as blood began to drain from his neck, his eyes growing dim and lifeless. He had stolen children and left them parentless. I felt the pain of my own loss rise in my throat but I pushed it down, rushing into the orchard. There I found my horse where I had tied her. She was munching away on apples but I leapt onto her back quickly and jerked her into a gallop.

I had to get home, I had to get away. It was not a long ride to my village and when I rode into town all conversation stopped. It might have been because my hood was off or simply by the fact they knew what I did on my trips out of the village. I saw Babel by our house and dismounted my horse quickly leaving her for Babel to take into the stables; he was still too young to join me but was well aware of what I did.

I rushed inside to meet Arthur. He grabbed me firmly and buried my face into his shoulder as he kneeled down to me. I let my enraged tears soak his shoulder as he gently rubbed my back. He lifted me and took me upstairs and lay me on my cot. He pulled covers over me and took my dagger from my belt. I was still crying when he left but it had become soothing small sobs that died off as I fell asleep.

After most of my targets I went to sleep, it helped me rest my mind and come to ease with what I had done, to think of what good or bad I had done and move on. It was dangerous to linger on the past too much and for times my targets reasons for death brought me to tears it was important to look into the future, live in the present, and forget the hate in the past.

Not long after falling asleep Babel was shaking me awake. I grumbled at him. He had crawled in through the window; he knew he was supposed to leave me alone. I sat up and glared at him. He just put his hand on my face and giggled. I gave him a slap in the side of the head, he just wanted to know who it was and why. He always did.

"Guess you want to know who they were?" I asked.

"Yeah"

"His name was Jerry, Jerry Blant. And he was above the law"

"What did he do?"

"He took children. Like what happened to us, but he took his enemies kids and then killed their parents for trying to get them back"

"I want to meet them" Babel said suddenly.

"What?" I rubbed my eyes wondering if I was still sleeping.

"They're like us right? You know" Babel tugged on his ears "_like_ us"

I didn't want to hurt him, they were just humans but Babel was holding onto the hope that our village was not the only one hiding a few Swicken children. Babel watched my reaction with his hopeful expression. His ginger hair stuck up straight like his head was on fire. Babel had black eyes, like his father, pitch black eyes. You'd think it would make him seem cold or even emotionless but it only made him seem more innocent. I broke eye contact and I heard him let out a painful sigh.

"Human kids?" He asked. I nodded.

"Were the last aren't we?" He asked looking out the window he came from. I looked up surprised. Was thick skulled, stubborn Babel, giving up?

"Don't try and tell me there _might_ be, I want to _know_ that there_ is_ others" Babel said. I wanted to comfort him, his sister had been separated from him on the run and he was still sneaking off to look for her. He knew how dangerous it was to go back to our grove looking for signs of life, there was always military making sure no one could come back and meet up with other survivors.

"I'll take you to Babylon" I said boldly. Babel half turned to glace at me.

"You'd never be allowed" He told me.

"Arthur is sending me there the next dead moon night, there is big target there" I said. I had been holding it back since Arthur told me, but Babel was right, there were more Swicken. Arthur told me after I snapped, I told him I was done, I wasn't going to kill anymore. He told me his master plan, to eliminate the targets that were a danger to Swicken. Then we could come out of hiding and meet our kind together again for the first time in ten years to meet at the grove. There was a band of Swicken living in Babylon in hiding. The target, them. There was not killer target making it a danger for me to bring Babel along, and by the way he was looking he needed to. I didn't know why Arthur wanted me to see them but he would tell me within the following week. The reason Babel thought it was a danger, and it was, was because of the guards. It had been a decade but they were still well aware that Swicken were "dangerous" and if they were in town they were thought to be after the King Gorgen, after revenge. This group, from what I was told, had nowhere else to go. After their failed attempt to kill the King they were trapped. From that I had pretty much guessed what my job would be, I'd be escorting them to our village to live without fear of the king's guards finding them.

"And you'd take me with you?" Babel asked, his expression lighting up.

"Of course you'd need some more stealth training" I laughed.

"Why? Even Arthur doesn't know I'm here" He smiled.

Just then the door opened and Arthur was holding his arms up like he was holding a crossbow.

"Bang" Arthur said and Babel grabbed his chest and fell off the bed acting dead. I rolled off the bed and poked my head up, Arthur was gone. I dived over the bed and hid behind the door. I heard the floor creek giving away Arthur's position and swung around the door poking him in the chest.

"Gotcha" I said with a sly grin. Babel's head poked up from behind the bed and he lifted his nose in the air.

"Dinner!" He shouted and jumped up racing past us pushing Arthur and I out of the way. I dived after him but Arthur caught me by my hair. I yelped and he pulled me backwards into his arms. He kissed of my forehead and rested his chin on my head.

"You okay?" He said gently. I patted his big hairy arm that was locked across my chest holding me close. I stepped onto his toes and he walked forward. I kept my heels on his toes until we got to the stairs. He let me go and I raced down the stairs that led right into the kitchen. Babel and Sue, Arthur's daughter, were sitting at the table.

Sue was cuddling her little boy Charles. I walked over to them and wiggled my finger over him and he gurgled and grabbed my finger. I laughed and he let go. Sue was amazing, most of the other kids that had Swicken placed with them weren't sure how to respond, Arthur was a natural leader and Sue was a chip of the old block. She had taken Babel and I in like we were born siblings. We would play in the open so everyone could see us, at first this was terrifying but Sue egged us on and we got used to the idea of not having to hide in the shadows.

Not everyone was as happy to take us in and risk their lives but it didn't take long for them to see what we had gone through. A couple of guards were on their way through town and Babel and another one of our group of survivors were playing with a year old puppy in the town centre without any fear. They wore normal clothing, summer clothing. Shorts showing off their tattooed legs and short sleeved shirts to keep cool from the sun. The guards must have seen their bright ginger hair for miles, their dark odd looking skin and, as they got closer, the tattoos and pointed ears. There were five guards in total but they seemed like a dozen. I was in the kitchen with sue and saw them galloping up the street. I dropped the expensive glass dish I was holding and ran to get Arthur. By the time I found him in the stables I saw Babel and Kie, the Swicken he was playing with, surrounded by these huge guards high on their steeds with spears and crossbows pointed down at them. Two kids, but all they saw were dangerous killers-to-be. There was nothing I could do and that made my stomach flip. Farmers and other villagers started coming out of their homes. I was afraid that they would just watch but they were armed.

There was one man who seemed to hate us, everyone would have thought he, if anyone, would be the one to tell the guards where we were and where to find and catch us.

"Hey pigs!" He had called to them armed with a loaded crossbow. Two of the guards turned on their horses to face him.

"This does not concern you old man" One of the men said. At that moment the shudders on his house and all of his kids, twelve in total, were armed with crossbows loaded and aimed. Even his wife stepped outside with her crossbow. They were the hunting family that supplied all furs to the village, they were the best shots and most dangerous.

"You come into my town, insult us without a warning of your arrival, and scare our children. You nasty, cowardly, bastard! _You _made this my concern!" he roared "Now I am giving you to the count of three to let those kids go, drop yours weapons, and get off your horses to surrender"

"Or what, old man, are you going to make your kids kill us? That would make you quite a coward" the second guard said. He gasped and the man beside him did the same as an arrow stuck right out of his chest. Babel and Kie made a run for it to Kie's house since it was closest. Everyone raced inside as arrows rained from the man's house until every solider had fallen.

"Coward?" He spit in the dirt "It makes me a father"

That was the last I heard from him, ever. He had defended two of ours and called them his own. He wasn't the friendly neighbor but he wouldn't let us get hurt. I didn't know his name or much care to know it. We respected each other's lack of care to know about each other but I knew I would repay what he had done for Babel and Kie in an instant if it came to it.

That was when the village had become a home and no longer a refuge. After that none of the other people in town moved away from us, not everyone much cared for us but they treated us like they did any other human. I liked that, I didn't want any special treatment.

"He has your eyes" Arthur told his daughter as he smiled over his grandson. I sat down beside Babel and Carrie served everyone steaming hot stew. Charles was given mashed carrots and milk. After eating Babel and I went out to see if the other kids wanted to play but it was getting dark so no one was allowed out so we went back home. Carrie, Arthur's wife, was calling for us so we snuck into our rooms through our second story windows. She came into our rooms and kissed us goodnight and just as we thought we were in the clear she said "Goodnight my sweets, thank you for keeping the dust off the window sill, but I would rather you use the stairs"

The next morning I dragged myself downstairs for morning chores and found I only had to put out the horses to graze, no target today. Instead I had a day off which I used to give Babel riding lessons. We raced around a nearby pond making quick stops and mounts, sudden dismounts into trees and behind bushes. I showed him how to use his horse as his weapon by rearing up and kicking forward. The following day was the same, a day off, so we worked on stealth and fighting silently.

Two days before the dead moon Arthur got me alone in the stables to talk. I knew what he was talk about, just not how the conversation would go. I patted my mare and Arthur was forking hay into his own horse's stall.

"You're ready?" he asked sutbly.

"Yes. Babel is too" I said kissing my mare's cheek. She stomped her foot in protest and I gave her another kiss. She grunted tossed her head in the air.

"Babel is young"

"and fast"

"He cannot ride well enough"

"We move at night"

"He will lose his consentration when he sees them"

"He will have hope once more, without it he cannot continue as Babel, but as a broken spirit"

"You will keep him close?"

"Always"

"He will do as you say when you say?"

"He will swear to it"

"Then I'll ready his horse" Arthur said and walked out of the barn to get Babel's horse from the field. That was it, simple and to the point without every mentioning the event. The barn was a safe place but one never knows who might be listening in. We had been suspecting some people in town were looking for a prize to hand in a few of us children at a time to the king and of course claim to have stopped an assasination attempt on the king himself. I knew times were hard and some would rather betray a few than to ask one for help.

A few hours later Babel walked in with his stallion. I handed him a brush and brought my mare out of her stable. I looked to babel and we locked eyes. Babel nodded and turned to his horse starting to brush him. He had spoken with Arthur and we would be saddling up in two days and headed for Babylon. I mounted my mare bareback and Babel looked up to me.

"Sometimes time is not on your side, so you have to steal some" I said. Babel nodded and mounted his stallion bareback. When time is running out you steal it from where you can, no saddle is too bad. When you need to get out in a hurry you better know how to stay on your stead while it is running for it's dear life. I had mastered the bond with my mare and could ride her without a saddle or bridle, Babel could ride bareback but not during jumps, ducks, and sudden turns. I took him out into the forest to practice, he fell off alot before he got ahold of jumping but he didn't get hurt uuntil the sudden turns. He aced ducking branches and sticks I threw like arrows. At the end of the day I beleive he knew enough to survive if we had to move out quickly. He needed a lot more practice before he could count on his skills of escaping on a bareback horse but just enough to survive with a good 65% chance.

"Hey" Carrie shouted to me as I came out of the barn and I jogged over to her. She handed me Charles "I need to do some chores and Charles wants to play, do you mind?"

"Not at all" I smiled and tickled Charles as I cradled him in one arm "Do you want to play with your favourite Auntie?"

Carrie went off to work and I took Charles out to the horse field and sat under an apple tree and watched the horses get turned out by Babel. I sung an old song to Charles, a Swicken song of love and shadows.

"I will always be here for you" I said kissing Charles' forehead and he giggled "Hopefully when you're old enough to understand me the Swicken will once more live in the grove. You will be a blood nethew, Carrie is already set to be a blood sister when we bring those Swicken back, they know the rituals, you are family Charles, Swicken protect their family. _Chada Engal_"

Chada Engal was what I was to Babel, what Arthur is to me and what I will become for Charles. It roughly translates to 'shadow angel' but its true meaning is closest to 'Guardian Angel of Shadows' The Chada Engal watches over but is unseen, protects but cannot be killed, death does not stop the protection he or she lays over a blood member. The swicken roots are deep and every Swicken becomes a Chada Engal when they come of age, the tattoos signify one is Swicken of a certain clan but the tattoo also tells ones life story, it is added onto for each 'Chada-moin' or 'Shadow Child' added to one's sight and when one has children, forms a bond with a mate, adds a blood member of another race or clan, and when one dying. If someone with the tattoo signifying death survives they are deemed to be a true hunter, only the Swicken with this tattoo can establish their own clan as a branch off, anyone can establish their own clan but they break off all family ties if they do so without the tattoo. Rules of Swicken are hard to learn for outsiders but we are born with the knowledge like how a horse knows how to walk as soon as it is born, a swicken knows its roots from birth. The tattoos are added to the child when it first begins to walk and speak and understand the world around it.


End file.
